NGEx Minerals (NGEX) - Helados is now Low Risk, Potro Cliffs = Filo2?

NGEx Minerals Ltd. is a Canadian copper and gold exploration company with its asset portfolio consisting of various mineral exploration projects located in South America. The company has a 64% interest in the large-scale Los Helados copper-gold project in Chile. The project is a joint venture between NGEx Minerals Ltd. and Nippon Caserones Resources Co. Ltd. The Potro Cliffs exploration target of the company is located approximately 12 km to the southwest in San Juan Province Argentina. The Valle Ancho project of the company holds a 100,000-hectare land position on the Argentinian side of Chile’s Maricunga gold belt, which hosts more than 100 million ounces of gold.

On the 25th of October 2022, the company announced that it had closed its previously announced non-brokered private placement. The private placement consisted of the company issuing 15 million common shares at CAD$ 2.00 for the gross proceeds of CAD$ 30 million to the company. The net proceeds of the placement are intended to further the company’s exploration programs at its Chilean and Argentinian projects as well as the repayment of amounts drawn against a USD$ 3 million credit facility maturing in September 2023.

NGEx Minerals Ltd. announced on the 8t of November 2022, that it had initiated a planned 15,000 m diamond drilling program at the Los Helados copper-gold project. The diamond drilling program will aim to further extend and define the Fenix and Alicanto high-grade zones of the project, which were identified in the drill program conducted by the company in the first half of 2022. The diamond drilling program will consist of four drill rigs active at the project until the end of Q1 2023, with two drill rigs already on site.

NGEx Minerals Ltd. on the 25th of November 2022, released its Q3 2022 results and also provided a corporate update. The highlights of the report include the drill program conducted by the company in the first half of 2022, as well as the announcement that the company had completed its 100% earn-in agreement regarding its Valle Ancho project. The company formally submitted all evidence regarding the fulfilment of the earn-in agreement to the province of Catamarca, with its submission under review.

The company will in the future continue with its exploration initiatives at the Los Helados project, whilst awaiting the necessary permits to also conduct exploration initiatives at the Potro Cliffs target.

Management

The company is led by Wojtek Wodzicki, who serves as the company’s President and CEO. Wodzicki holds a PhD. in Geosciences from the University of Arizona and has more than 30 years of global mineral exploration and corporate management experience. Wodzicki has led various exploration teams and has managed various large-scale projects from inception to detailed engineering. Wodzicki has led the teams responsible for numerous significant discoveries including the Los Helados, Josemaria, Filo del Sol, and El Limon-Guajes discoveries. He has previously served as CEO for various companies including Josemaria Resources and Filo Mining and is responsible for the spinout of NGEx Minerals Ltd. in the summer of 2019 from the Lundin Group.

Jeff Yip is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company, he previously served as Corporate Controller for Rusoro Mining Ltd., a junior gold producer with operations in Venezuela as well as RB Energy Inc., a TSX-listed iodine producer with assets in Chile and Canada. Yip is also a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia.

Bob Carmichael is the Vice President of Exploration for NGEx Minerals Ltd. He is a registered professional engineer in British Columbia and holds a bachelor’s degree in applied science from the University of British Columbia. Carmichael has more than 23 years of experience in international mineral exploration and previously held the position of General Manager, Resource Exploration with oversight of all near-mine and resource definition exploration activities for the UK office of Lundin Corp.

Diego Charchaflie is the South American general manager for the company. Charchaflie joined the Lundin Group in 1993 as a Junior Geologist and formed part of the team that discovered the Veladero gold deposit in Argentina.

Judy A. McCall is the final member of the company’s management team and serves as Corporate Secretary. She has more than 13 years of experience in the private and public natural resource sector and is an active member of the Governance Professionals of Canada.

Projects

The Los Helados project of the company is a copper-gold porphyry deposit, located in the Andes Mountains of the Atacama Region of Chile. The project was discovered in 2008 by NGEx Resources and is one of the largest grassroots copper-gold discoveries made in the last decade. The project is a joint venture with NGEx Minerals Ltd. owning 63.8% and operating the project, with Nippon Caserones Resources Co. Ltd. owning the remainder. The Geology of the project hosts primarily Miocene magmatic-hydrothermal breccia mineralisation. The breccia systems form circular, pipe-like mineralisation bodies with dimensions of 1,100 m east-west, 1,200 m north-south, and at least 1,500 m vertically.

The Los Helados project holds a mineral resource estimate of 1. 7.6 billion pounds of copper, 10.1 million ounces of gold and 92.5 million ounces of silver in the indicated category, and 5.8 billion pounds of copper, 2.7 million ounces of gold and 35.1 million ounces of silver in the inferred category.

The metallurgical test work completed to date has shown average copper recoveries of between 84.2% and 93.9% as well as gold recoveries of 76% and silver recoveries averaging 60%. The project also hosts the Porto Cliffs target.

The Valle Ancho project of the company holds a 100,000-hectare land position on the Argentinian side of Chile’s Maricunga gold belt, which hosts more than 100 million ounces of gold.

Private placement

On the 25th of October 2022, the company announced that it had closed its previously announced non-brokered private placement. The private placement consisted of the company issuing 15 million common shares at CAD$ 2.00 for the gross proceeds of CAD$ 30 million to the company.

The net proceeds of the placement are intended to further the company’s exploration programs at its Chilean and Argentinian projects as well as the repayment of amounts drawn against a USD$ 3 million credit facility maturing in September 2023.

Wojtek Wodzicki explains that the company believes that through spending the funds on exploration initiatives it will not only see value creation at its respectable projects but also its share price, creating value for its shareholders.

“I think if you look at our share price performance over the last year, it’s definitely driven by drill results. Now, we know that the current market is different than it was 6 to 8 months ago, but we still feel that good drill results are going to be rewarded, and I think that’s just driven by the lack of a lot of exploration stories out there. So, yeah we’re certainly expecting and hoping that our share price is driven by what we expect and hope are going to be good drill results out of Los Helados, and then as the year goes on and we drill some of our earlier stage exploration targets like Potro Cliffs, that’s going to be another set of drill results that are going to drive our stock.”

The concluded private placement also enabled various new investors to join the company according to Wodzicki, with the new investors not only consisting of retail investors but also various institutional funds as well as family-office type funds.

“We targeted some institutional money, especially institutions that are able to put money into, I guess for them, smaller cap companies like NGEx, and that was a mix of Canadian, European, and London-based institutional funds. We’ve always had a strong following from family office-type money, obviously in Switzerland, that puts money into a lot of Lundin companies. Then we had a significant amount of money come in from HNWIs and retail investors in both Canada and Sweden. It was a good mix of institutional, retail, and then long-term sticky family office-type money”

Los Helados project exploration

NGEx Minerals Ltd. announced on the 8th of November 2022, that it had initiated a planned 15,000 m diamond drilling program at the Los Helados copper-gold project. The diamond drilling program will aim to further extend and define the Fenix and Alicanto high-grade zones of the project, which were identified in the drill program conducted by the company in the first half of 2022. The diamond drilling program will consist of four drill rigs active at the project until the end of Q1 2023, with two drill rigs already on site.

Wodzicki explains that the drill rigs currently present at the Los Helados project are split between the project’s Phoenix zone and its Alicanto zone, with a drill rig focused on extending the mineralisation at the phoenix zone through continuing the drilling of one of the holes drilled earlier the year and the other aiming to extend the mineralisation of the Alicanto zone through a new drill hole.

“We re-entered one of the holes that we left at the end of last season, successfully got to the bottom of that and are continuing to drill it. That’s a hole that will test the northern extent of the Phoenix Zone, which is one of those high-grade zones that we drilled last year. Then the second drill is working on a hole that’s drilling towards what we hope will be an extension of the Alicanto Zone, which is on the northwest edge of the current drill pattern.”

The company expects to receive the necessary permit to also conduct exploration drilling initiatives at the Potro Cliffs target of the project. Wodzicki states that the target is one of the most exciting drill targets he has come across.

“Potro Cliffs, that's probably one of the most exciting drill targets I’ve seen in a long time. But that’s one of those very much results-driven programs, so we’ll be putting the first couple of drill holes into that and then if we have the success that we expect to have, we’ll build out that program, but it’ll be hole by hole and we’ll drill as much as we can at Potro Cliffs.

Corporate update and plans

NGEx Minerals Ltd. on the 25th of November 2022, released its Q3 2022 results and also provided a corporate update. The highlights of the report include the drill program conducted by the company in the first half of 2022, as well as the announcement that the company had completed its 100% earn-in agreement regarding the Valle Ancho project. The company formally submitted all evidence regarding the fulfilment of the earn-in agreement to the province of Catamarca, with its submission under review.

The company will in the future continue with its exploration initiatives at the Los Helados project, whilst awaiting the necessary permits to also conduct exploration initiatives at the Potro Cliffs target. Wodzicki believes that the Potro Cliffs target will contribute largely to the company and its value, and believes that it holds great promise.

“In the medium term, by which I mean the next 6 to 9 months, NGEx share price is going to be driven by what we hope are going to be really good results from drilling out those satellite high-grade zones at Los Helados, and then the real lottery ticket in our story I think is drill results from the Potro Cliffs target. This is the largest undrilled mineralised system in the Vicuña District. This would be an exciting target anywhere. But the fact that it sits midway between 3 multi-billion-tonne deposits I think lends it even more potential.”

To find out more, go to the NGEx Minerals website